Live 8 Concert

Live 8 London: UK concert review (cont.)

Live 8 London Rocks On

Mariah Carey was the not the best act of the day, but something about her…. I can't put my finger on it, but I like her. She did bring out a little African group and I like dhow it tied to the whole reason for having the Live 8 concert in the first place. She did a nice job with "Hero".

Mariah was followed up by Robbie Williams, the court jester. That boy can sing and the audience at Hyde Park loved him. He was a great fit for Live 8 since we could have Freddy Mercury back. He did do a respectful job of "We will Rock You". He followed up his show with 3 other tracks.

The quaky Peter Kay did his "Is This the Way to Amarillo?" and the introduced "The Who".

They played "Who Are You?" and "Won't Get Fooled Again", two massive show stopping tracks. I could have gone home right then completely happy with what I had witnessed. My legs were killing me, nine hours of standing and sitting and standing again. But like the commercial says "wait, there is more"

Pink Floyd. Need I say more. The largest concert event in history and less than a soccer field away in standing Roger Waters and David Gilmour. I can die now. The Who just opened the crowds' eyes and Pink Floyd knocked everybody out with "Breathe", "Money", "Wish You Were Here", and "Comfortably Numb".

This Live 8 event was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The concert truly could have ended right then and that was ok by me. Live 8 London finished with Paul McCartney back on stage for five more numbers. I like Paul McCartney, but at this moment, I couldn't help but think he is a stage whore. He had a lot of balls thinking he could follow the mighty Floyd.

Paul took the stage and kidded with the audience "I remember a lot of you from this morning", He ran through "Get Back" and I yawned. I wondered what other Beatles numbers he had up his sleeve. For the second track the crowd got a real treat as George Michel hit the Live 8 stage. It was 20 years ago that George Michael joined Elton John on Stage for the song "Don't Let the sun Go Down on Me". He was excellent back then at Live Aid, but this time his duet was with a Beatle. They did the "Drive My Car" from the classic Rubber Soul album followed by "Helter Skelter". The tracks were a bit heavier than I remember them. The masses of Live 8 sang along with the last two numbers "Long and Winding Road", and the Finale "Hey Jude".

Like I said, as far as I was concerned the whole Live 8 event could have been summed up with the Pink Floyd track "Comfortably Numb". (At least the statement would have been a whole lot clearer.) It was close to midnight and one of the longest concerts I had ever attended. I was at the original Live Aid concert in 1985 and this event sure stands up to those memories.

The Live 8 events wear very well organized and you could see and hear the entire show from just about anywhere in Hyde Park.

I will be ordering the Live 8 concert on DVD when it comes out and plan some time on a weekend close to Christmas to watch the whole concert event over again. Bob did a good job summing it up "It has been, one magnificent day."

See all Live 8 Concert reiews:
Live 8 London, UK :: Live 8 Philadelphia, USA :: Live 8 Toronto (Barrie),CA